Five with Fry

14: The Unseen Burdens of College Sports: How Modern Pressures Crush Today's Athletes

• Dr. Jen Fry • Season 1 • Episode 14

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Today’s college athletes are navigating a storm of pressures that previous generations never had to face, and it's costing lives.

In this powerful and urgent episode of Five with Fry, Dr. Jen Fry takes a hard look at the mental health crisis devastating college athletics, sparked by the heartbreaking death by suicide of LSU football player Kyren Lacy. It’s a wake-up call we can’t afford to ignore.

Athletes aren’t just competing on the field anymore. They’re performing under a microscope. Every play is dissected by millions online. NIL deals turn teens into business brands overnight. Sports betting adds a dangerous twist, with athletes receiving threats from people who lose money on their games. And all of this is happening while they're still trying to balance classes, practices, and the expectations of coaches, fans, and families.

Telling athletes to “be grateful” misses the point. This is a new game with new rules, and most universities haven’t caught up. Mental health support remains woefully underfunded, even as the demands grow exponentially.

Jen makes it clear: sports psychology isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. This episode challenges all of us to rethink how we support athletes, stop comparing them to "back in the day," and start advocating for the resources they actually need to survive and thrive.

Dr. Jen Fry:

Friends, welcome to Five with Fry, where five is the magic number, whether it's five minutes, five questions or anything that fits in five. I dive into the big topics that matter, sometimes alone and other times with a friend, from navigating sports conflict to family dynamics, travel, tech, hard-hitting issues and even politics. Nothing and I mean nothing's off the table. This is where curiosity meets conversation, and we always sit at an intersection. I'm your host, dr Jen Fry of Jen Fry Talks. Let's get into it. Hey, friends, welcome to the newest episode of Five with Fry. Today, we're going to talk about mental health and the new stressors that I believe college athletes are not prepared for, stressors that I believe college athletes are not prepared for, and this was spurned by the suicide of Kyron Lacey, a former LSU football player who was set to be picked in the 2025 NFL draft. I want to add the caveat that I know he was going to be appearing before a grand jury on Monday, april 14th 2025, for causing a wreck that killed a 78-year-old person. And I think a really important thing to talk about is kind of twofold Is A, when these athletes look like they have it quote, unquote all and I think the other thing to talk about is the pressures that are coming now with being a top level Division I athlete, and how both of those are putting such an untold amount of stress and even pain on these athletes that they really, in some ways, aren't sure and don't know how to manage and deal with it. I think a lot of people will say, you know, back in my day we were able to handle ABCD, will say, you know, back in my day we were able to handle ABCD. And what I want to say to some of those people is, baby, when we played we might not even had cell phones. Like literally, I didn't have a cell phone until my junior year in college. I wasn't on social media till I was 27 and if you're of my demographic, we cannot talk about back in the day because that literally does not apply. That's like someone who only rode with a horse and carriage talking to us about back in their days and we're driving cars. It literally is that big of a difference. What happened back in your day does not matter. What happened back in your day does not matter.

Dr. Jen Fry:

The reality of it now is that these powerful athletes are under undue amounts of stress because every move, everything that they do, is being watched in ways that they are really not prepared for. It's not only the fact that anything they do is immediately on social media and criticized If they did something good, if they did something bad, whatever it is, everything is being criticized. And I can't even imagine what it must feel like to have a game that you know you did badly and let me tell you, everyone in social media land is going to let you know how bad you did. Everyone in social media land is going to let you know how bad you did. I can't imagine doing something great and everyone in social media land is going to tell you how bad you did. Now added on top of that NIL, which in some ways, they have to understand that these people who are paying money for them and their skill set have business decisions to make. And now, on top of that, it's revenue sharing and the teams and the schools determining what their value is.

Dr. Jen Fry:

Yes, people can be kind of swayed by the amount of money that they're getting and some people say, well, what's the issue? You have it all. How can you not appreciate it? How are you not quote unquote grateful for what you're getting? And I think we need to pause If we ever tell an athlete, why are you not grateful for what you're getting? Because you're not really thinking about what's coming with the things that they should be grateful for.

Dr. Jen Fry:

These athletes are not mentally prepared for all the weight of it and I would argue some of the schools are not prepared for it with sports psychologists to help them handle the weight. Especially now with the house settlement and other things, which money is going to be taken from different areas to make sure money is available? Sports psychology, athletic training those should be the last places money is taken from and, honestly, the first place money is actually given to. We cannot put all these continuous amounts of weight on these athletes who are 18 and 22 and expect them to handle it well with no skillset, with coaches who are not trained professionals to manage it. We cannot expect them to do that.

Dr. Jen Fry:

And my heart goes out to this football player. With everything going on, his only way of thinking to is to commit suicide. That's horrible and, if anything, this is something to say to administrations. If we're talking about house settlement in millions and even bigger NIL contracts, we have to have more conversations of sports psychologists. We have to, we have to, we have to, we have to have more conversations of giving support mentally to these athletes for them to be able to take the weight, because also the weight comes with the expectations of administrations, coaches, whose jobs are based on what they do. They have to be able to handle the weight of social media.

Dr. Jen Fry:

But a bigger thing that I'll mention is the weight from bettors, because betting is huge right now, betting on every aspect of their game, and so when a team loses, guess who's in those DMs as well Are the people who are like you had me lose millions of dollars. You've had me lose tens of thousands of dollars because you took that shot, because you didn't take that shot. All of those things are weighing on these athletes and this is absolutely a plea to administrations you're going to have to bulk up your sports psychologists to help these athletes get skills to be able to manage this heavier weight that they're going to have. We have to get more sports psychologists, because these athletes are not prepared, because these athletes are nowhere prepared for what they're having to deal with on a daily basis, including their classes, including their travel, including having social lives, including dating, including families, including, including, including. We have to make sure we are not setting up these athletes for failure by just giving more money through house settlement or NIL and not mentally preparing them for all this weight, because everything is going to affect everything and we have got to make sure that we are helping prepare them for what they're going to have to navigate, manage and then also deal with.

Dr. Jen Fry:

Well, friends, that's it for this episode of Five with Fry your dose of five insights, ideas and inspiration. If you love what you heard, don't forget to head over to where podcasts are played to subscribe, share and leave a review. Got a topic you want us to tackle? Drop us a message. We'd love to hear from you. You can come follow me on IG, twitter, the TikTok at Jen Fry Talks, or join me on LinkedIn. Look for me at Dr Jen Fry. Until next time, stay curious, stay bold and keep the conversation going. See you on the next Five with Fry.